Ride London 100

Where was it you got stuck? I started at 8:52 and from the sounds of it was going a similar pace.

The two accidents I got caught up with were at ~20 miles (congestion as went to one lane by the scene) and then again at ~40 (the main one, but took the diversion around it).

It sounds like you got unlucky?

@dubtap I was in the 8:10 wave, and made it through both hills, must have been going much harder than I thought at the start though. I did get a big tow from the Otley CC lot at one point.

@colin122 I saw a chap on a Boris bike too. Very impressed by him heading up the hills

@Fahrgestell that was me! cheers for that, I was starting to find it a bit of a slog at that point...

To be clear, the last 3 years have seen the course abbreviated? I did it the year the wild weather was at fault. I didn't get in the year after and didn't bother applying for this year, but I thought I might next year. Now I don't think I will bother. Is part of the problem too many people?

Seems like it could be, though if the biggest hold-up was from the poor chap having a heart attack then it wouldn't be the numbers that were at fault there.

Yes, someone was airlifted off Leith last year too, which caused a diversion around it.

I think that the numbers are getting too high, given some of the narrow sections on the course.

No but the issue is that it only takes one incident to cause a massive backlog or bottleneck, with waves of people flying along behind it.

I think if you're really bothered about doing a decent time, put a fast time down when entering (faster than you think you can do) and you should get an early start (6am something) and likely miss the problems that arise when the masses get going.

If you're happy to chill out and enjoy the ride, possibly with some hold ups and the chance of a diversion, put a slow time down on the form and enjoy the comparative lie-in of a 9am start, but don't moan when you have to wait because someone ahead really needs assistance.

It's not the hold-ups I'm surprised or concerned about, it's the fact that the course has been shortened 3 years in succession.

That's fair enough but the advice remains the same as its only shortened for those that start later on. So if you want best chance of the full 100, put a quick time down on the form and hope for an early start.

True fax...
I have been in the first 3 or 4 waves to depart all three years I have done it and have had a trouble and incident free run all three years.

Is it that the confident riders, who are comfortable doing distance without getting stressed or anxious, who are able to maintain concentration and exertion for the period and who have more experience of riding in a bunch... have the certainty to put down a punchy ride time and so get allocated to the front?

/\ that's the way to do it - I put down a ridiculous 4 hour estimate this year as I wanted to try to get into an early wave. That time is totally out of my reach but it gave me a lot of wheels to follow at the beginning and after they'd pushed on the course wasn't too congested. In fact I found myself riding on my own or in groups of 2/3 for sections of it.

Understood.

NB - 2014 was shortened regardless of your start-time, because of the weather.

Problem with the early waves, of course, is that as well as people who like going 'wheeee, we're going fast, this is ace', you also get people who go 'WE ARE GOING FAST THIS IS MY RACE I AM GOING TO BEAT THIS TIME' who also quite often are the ones who like to shout at you whilst never doing a turn up front. The sort of man who sits in quite happily on the flat, talking a 40kph draft, then fucks off up the hills without helping the group.

That's what we did, we put down 4hrs, got a 6am start time, all of us got round the route in under 5hrs with no stop starting.

The first 60km was frantic though. Several instances of sketchy line taking, panic braking and all sorts

(including a drunk bloke walking the wrong way down the A12 at 6:10am nearly walking into the group)

Maybe it was a zombie?

I got around this by just waiting at the very back of Group A. The real keen lot had all the space in the world behind the leadout car thing at the beginning, and the fast riders from Group B were able to safely pass on wide London roads rather than glorified cart tracks in Surrey. Avoided tagging onto the most obvious fullgasgoingtowinthesportive groups and very glad I did - at one point there were three bidons rolling around the road from a speedbump, amazed that no one went down!

It's not the hold-ups I'm surprised or concerned about, it's the fact that the course has been shortened 3 years in succession.

I've done more than the full distance (2013 when the very first wave was directed the wrong way) then 87 miles (2014 with the rain, which I think was a very sensible decision), then full distance in both 2015 and 2016.

As has been said, early start and the road is fairly open (despite what looked a nasty crash at the very first underpass this year with four people on the deck), later on and there is an inevitable choke point that is eventually reached.

Oh, I've just remembered the lady on her phone who crossed the road and forgot riders were using the whole of the road and stepped off the traffic island looking the wrong direction just as we were coming down a hill on the right hand side.

Sound advice. I was off in a 6:40 wave but then waited for half an hour just after the Limehouse Tunnel for my mate who was on a later wave. Meant by the time we got to the Pyrford/Ripley bit we were held up for at least an hour by the crash.

I also think part of the problem is that the accident that caused the big stoppage was at what felt like one of the more remote sections and also the closest the route got to feeling like a proper small country lane. That meant that getting to the injured bloke and then getting him out of there looked tricky – we got held up for at least an hour there and all of us had to squeeze to the left at various points just to let steward/paramedic motorbikes through.

The conclusion the organisers might make from this is to keep the route to the bigger A-roads, which would be sad as after miles of suburbia flashing by it was quite nice to be out in the sticks for a bit...

I guess the alternatives are either to reduce the numbers, spread it out over a longer time or spread it out over more/wider roads. I don't see an option which doesn't cause disruption or disappointment for someone. Either someone doesn't get to ride, or the roads are closed for longer/over a larger area.

True. And in the list of disappointments, 'not seeing some pretty countryside' is probs pretty low priority to be fair...

Especially when compared to 'how quickly can we rescue someone who has just collided with a tree'

One thought I had was to have a bigger hub earlier - at around 30miles. Long enough for some people to want to stop, but before it gets countrified. That would hopefully thin out the stream a bit earlier and reduce the likelihood of serious accidents where access and passing are harder.
But essentially what's been said ^^^ - early start and you get round fine, later and you may have hold ups and be prepared to chill.

That's exactly what we said on missing the box hill cut off.